By Jackie Clark, EFAO Small Grains Program Manager

As the name suggests, 3Gen Organics is a multi-generational farm. For the Israel family, their choice of name is a reminder to learn from the generations that came before, and be mindful of the ones that will come after. 

The Israels farm 1200 acres of certified organic crops on clay loam soils, and raise farrow to finish swine in Wallenstein, Ontario, where the topography is flat and runoff is minimal. 

“I get to farm with my parents and grandparents every day,” explains Brett Israel, the youngest generation of the Israel family. “I’m always reminded that we think today we might know it all, but history has shown us that there’s lots of evolution to come in our practices.” 

This mindset makes Brett an ideal collaborator for research. Since 2020, Brett has been a part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Living Lab – Ontario project, working alongside EFAO, AAFC and Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists and other farmers towards common goals. Other project partners include the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, Ontario Soil Network, and several Conservation Authorities. 

“The farming world continues to evolve. One of the fun parts about being part of a research project is seeing how we can be a part of that evolution,” says Israel. His mission in the project was to investigate how organic farmers can grow high yielding corn and soybeans with reduced tillage. Tillage takes time, labour and fuel, and fewer passes would decrease soil disturbance and equipment wear and tear. 

Brett was inspired by his family’s successful use of small grains in crop rotations. Planted early and at high seeding rates, small grains can out-compete weeds and perform well with minimal tillage.

“How do we take the principles of best management practices for our small grains, and utilize the same philosophy to have greater success growing row crops like corn and soybeans?” asks Brett — a question he’s been investigating for three years in fields ranging from 12 to 40 acres in size.

Double-cropped soybeans 

Prior to participating in Living Lab – Ontario, Brett along with Jake Munroe from OMAFRA had been experimenting with cereal rye, which is known for its weed-suppressing effects. Leading into the Living Lab – Ontario research period, they established cereal rye in the fall, let it overwinter, roller-crimped the rye in spring and then planted soybeans. 

This technique achieved good weed suppression but unimpressive yield. When he looked at the economics, his standard 30-inch beans were more profitable.

The results were discouraging, but Brett liked the advantages of cereal rye. He wondered if there was another way to use the crop. 

In 2021, Brett planted cereal rye in the fall, let it overwinter, and then cut the rye for forage before heads formed. He then ran a high-speed disc over the field and immediately planted soybeans at a rate of 350,000 seed/acre. 

“We couldn’t get it to work well until we waited before planting the soybeans,” says Brett. When he cut the rye in May, let it regrow for two weeks, and then disced and planted soybeans in June, he experienced more success. The result was a thick crop of healthy soybean plants, and almost no weeds.

Brett’s theory is that waiting two weeks before discing allowed the rye to ramp up its allelopathic effect after cutting, resulting in good weed control. The soybeans yielded over 70 bu/acre in 2021 and 2022. Even in the latter, which was a very dry year, the best parts of the soybean field yielded 80 bu/acre at 43 percent protein. 

“We were able to maximize solar interception by having the beans solid-seeded. In a dry year that’s important because we’re not getting enough precipitation to have more vegetative growth,” Brett adds. 

Typically, the Israels would fall seed cereal rye after a small grain crop. Now, with Living Labs partners, they’re investigating whether cereal rye can be established after a high-moisture grain corn harvest. With shorter-day corn genetics, they could harvest high-moisture corn in late September. Then, it may be possible for the rotation to go from alfalfa-fuelled corn (see below) to rye-based soybean, and then to winter wheat. 

In another double-cropping experiment, they planted winter barley in the fall at a rate of 1,600,000 seeds/acre and harvested it the first week in July. They then planted super-short season hybrid soybeans at a rate of 320,000 seeds/acre. 

“We have invested in grain-drying technology that allows us to harvest barley a little earlier at higher moisture, get the straw out of the field, and seed the soybeans sooner,” Brett explains. 

In 2021 with good precipitation and good harvest conditions in the fall, Brett harvested a barley crop and then grew soybeans that yielded over 30 bu/ac with no additional tillage. However, in 2022’s drought, the same system yielded only 12 bu/acre soybeans. 

“Because of where the prices have gone for commodities in general and the pressures it’s had on the organic space, our break-even yield on the double-cropped beans was 6 bu/acre in 2022,” Brett adds, so even this disappointing yield was financially profitable for the farm. 

Alfalfa-fuelled corn

Inspired by Gary Zimmer, Wisconsin farmer and author of The Biological Farmer, the Israel family was also interested in exploring how growing forages could reduce the need for tillage in their field crop production. They use livestock manure for nutrition, but don’t want to overload the soil with phosphorus and potash, which can contribute to harmful environmental impacts in runoff, and encourage annual broadleaf weeds. Instead, with the Living Lab – Ontario initiative, they tried using alfalfa to manage weeds and fix nitrogen for a subsequent corn crop. 

Brett broadcast seeded alfalfa at 20-25 lbs/acre in early spring, and then drilled a triticale and pea nurse crop at 100 lbs/acre. The first cut of forage off the nurse crop was fed to dry sows. 

That year, Brett got one or two cuttings from the alfalfa, which he feeds his hogs as forage. Feed tests on top growth found crude protein over 35 per cent, estimated to provide 180 lbs/acre available nitrogen to the next crop. The following spring he used a John Deere high performance disc to work the alfalfa down, and the ground looked prepared for corn planting. 

“We thought we had it all figured out,” he adds. “I quickly came to realize that alfalfa is very resilient.”

The alfalfa stand grew back after the corn had been planted, too thick to allow for a decent corn crop. 

“We needed to find a different way to manage the alfalfa,” Brett says. That year, he experimented with using a rotavator in some parts of the field in the first week of June, to see if he could salvage some of the corn crop. 

“The rotavator did a great job of terminating the alfalfa. The only problem was that the corn planter was already cleaned up and I didn’t want to dirty it again,” he explains. So he used his sweet corn planter to plant an 80-day corn hybrid in June. 

“It was out of the ground like a shot,” he said. With no additional tillage or nitrogen, the corn yielded over 240 bu/acre. 

These results are “truly game-changing for us,” says Brett. “One of those opportunities that allows organic agriculture to be scaled across more acres and provides a really strong competitive business case to get alfalfa and forages into more of our field crop rotations.” 

Along with this exciting success, there also exists risk, challenges, and learning opportunities. Case in point: in places where the alfalfa was not controlled, corn yields were only 40-50 bu/acre. 

Learning from this experience, the Living Lab – Ontario team wanted to replicate this result across 50 acres in 2022, testing two different techniques to control alfalfa: letting it overwinter and using a bigger, improved rotavator in the spring, or moldboard plowing in the fall.

“We’ve all been told the moldboard plough is a bad thing; that it shouldn’t be used. We wanted to test what the impact would be on the soil biology,” says Brett. “What was fascinating was that across all of our corn acres, the plowed down alfalfa was the best corn we had in 2022. Even in peak drought conditions it never showed drought stress.”

In the plowed treatment, 80 day and 96 day corn hybrids yielded 210 bu/acre and 230 bu/acre, respectively. The spring-rotavated fields suffered more under drought conditions, yielding 170 bu/acre. 

“Still a very good corn yield,” says Brett, especially in a drought year. “Both systems provided very solid agronomic advantages.”

Brett’s 2021 results indicate that spring rotavating will produce better yields when moisture is adequate, and that fall plowing may result in better yields in dry years. Based on the two years of trials, Brett is intrigued by the results. He plans to continue these trials to test if the termination methods impact or maintain maximum soil health and yields over time. 

The future on the farm 

Each experiment that Brett has completed leads to dozens more questions to explore, he tells EFAO. He’s evaluating interseeding cover crops to corn, taking a first cut off of alfalfa in the second year, and perfecting the timing of planting and harvesting double-cropped soybeans. 

“I think there’s lots of different ways we can use these tools to reduce tillage in organic systems and produce good crops,” he says. The project is “making organic more scalable for us, and really excites us about the future of our farm.”

These results from the Living Lab – Ontario research at 3Gen Organics have the potential to create more opportunities for larger-scale field croppers to transition to organic without relying on extensive tillage, and for smaller organic farms to scale up production — a win-win for farmers across the province, and for our soils. 

Jackie Clark is EFAO’s Small Grains Program Manager, helping encourage farmers to realize the benefits of incorporating small grains in field crop rotations. She is also an accomplished writer and former journalist.